PlantBookOS stands on the shoulders of open data, open science, and community-curated horticulture. This page lists the sources we draw from and the licenses that govern them.
Species taxonomy
- GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Canonical names, synonyms, and family/genus relationships. Backbone Taxonomy is published under CC BY 4.0. Cite: GBIF Secretariat (2023). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei.
- World Flora Online (WFO) — accepted plant names and authorship, used for cross-checks. Published under CC BY 4.0.
- USDA PLANTS Database — common names, native flag, and state distribution for U.S. species. U.S. government work; public domain. Wired into species enrichment.
- Wikidata — multilingual common names, toxicity claims (P2913/P2914/P2868), and crosswalk identifiers (GBIF, POWO, iNat, EOL). Published under CC0 1.0. Wired into species enrichment.
- iNaturalist — preferred common name and default photo per taxon. Photos are only stored when their license is CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-SA; photographer attribution is preserved and displayed. Wired into species enrichment.
- Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) — descriptive trait text (habit, life cycle, general description) filtered to CC0 and CC BY records. EOL licensing. Wired into species enrichment.
- GBIF Occurrences — aggregated coordinates used to derive each species' climate envelope (5th/50th/95th percentile annual minimum temperature). CC BY 4.0. Wired into climate-envelope module.
- NASA POWER — annual solar radiation profile for grow-light guidance. Public domain (NASA Langley). Wired into outdoor-planting module.
- SoilGrids 250m (ISRIC) — soil pH and texture at user coordinate for outdoor planting advice. CC BY 4.0. Wired into outdoor-planting module.
Care profiles
Care guidance (watering, light, humidity, soil, fertilizer, toxicity, propagation) is generated by Google Gemini 2.5 Flash via the Lovable AI Gateway and reviewed by community contests. Profiles are guidance, not veterinary or horticultural advice. Always verify toxicity against the ASPCA toxic plant list before allowing access to pets or children.
Weather and climate
- Open-Meteo Forecast API — temperature, precipitation, weather codes, UV index, and FAO reference evapotranspiration (ET₀). Published under CC BY 4.0.
- Open-Meteo ERA5 reanalysis — 10-year baselines used for hardiness zone derivation and climate envelope tiles. ERA5 data is © Copernicus Climate Change Service information, redistributed under CC BY 4.0.
- Open-Meteo Soil Forecast — root-zone soil moisture and soil temperature at multiple depths, used to refine watering recommendations. CC BY 4.0. Wired into climate refresh.
- Open-Meteo Air Quality API — PM2.5, PM10, ozone, UV index, and European pollen series (alder, birch, grass, mugwort, olive, ragweed). CC BY 4.0. Wired into climate refresh.
- NOAA National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) — official US frost, freeze, excessive-heat, and red-flag advisories surfaced alongside our derived alerts. U.S. government work; public domain. Wired into the climate-alerts cron.
- NASA POWER — annual solar radiation profile for grow-light guidance. U.S. government work; public domain. Wired into climate refresh.
- Zippopotam.us — postal-code → coordinates lookup (~60 countries) for users without precise geolocation. Free public API.
- USDA Plant Hardiness Zone bands and methodology (10-year average annual minimum temperature) — U.S. government work; public domain.
Cultivars
Cultivar names are community-submitted and admin-moderated. Where cultivar epithets are registered trademarks, the marks belong to their respective holders; we use them descriptively to identify the plant.
Photos
All plant photos in collections are owned by the users who uploaded them. Marketplace and species-contest photos remain the property of the uploader and are shown under a limited license to display them in the app.
Icons and fonts
- Lucide icons — ISC License.
Corrections
Spotted an error or a missing attribution? Email privacy@plantbookos.com and we will fix it.